Real Life Fantasy: Enchanted Anxiety - in Ron Weasley's 'Howler'
If ignored … it’s much, much worse.
Like anxiety, the Howler ramps up it’s response to being avoided, escalating to explosions, curses, and insults!
What is a ‘Howler’?
If you’re unfamiliar with the boy wizard Harry Potter, his buddy Ron Weasley, and their wizarding world, the concept of a ‘Howler’ requires some explanation. (Watching this clip is a quick way to get up to speed … or simply read on … )
A bit of background: A means of communication within the wizarding world, Howlers are magical letters with red envelopes. The message written within is enchanted to be delivered to the recipient with the writer’s voice … at a very high volume. Howlers are an effective way to deliver a message expressing anger, frustration, or displeasure.
A key point: The physical temperature of the Howler increases rapidly upon delivery and the Howler will explode if left unopened for too long. And, the recipient is showered with curses and insults when the Howler explodes into flames.
Ron’s Howler from Mrs. Weasley
In Chapter 6 of ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,’ Ron Weasley received a Howler, in its signature red envelope, from his mother. Although the envelope looked perfectly ordinary to Harry, Ron, and their fellow Gryffindor, Neville, looked at it “as though they expected it to explode.”
Neville says, “You’d better open it, Ron … It’ll be worse if you don’t. My Gran sent me one once, and I ignored it and —’ he gulped, ‘it was horrible.’”
The envelope began to “smoke at the corners.”
Neville urged Ron, “Open it … It’ll all be over in a few minutes …”
Ron opened it. And it exploded in a roar of sound. Mrs. Weasley’s voice, a hundred times louder than usual, filled the huge Hall. Her voice shook dust from the ceiling and echoed deafeningly off the stone walls, delivering a scathing lecture and threatening to bring Ron home if he were to “put another toe of out of line.”
Once the message has been delivered, the “red envelope … burst into flames and curled into ashes.”
What can we learn from the Howler about anxiety?
01. It escalates.
Anxiety often arrives like a prickle of worry, fear, or threat. And, if not appropriately responded to, can escalate, generating a spiraling, avalanche of intrusive thoughts; physiological symptoms (a racing heart, shortness of breath, stomach upset); and feelings of significant stress and tension, even terror and panic.
Like anxiety, the Howler arrives as a simple red envelope. But, upon arrival, it begins to smoke at the corners. Unlike anxiety, however, the Howler will escalate quickly, whether opened or unopened.
02. “It’ll all be over in a few minutes.”
If opened immediately, the Howler will deliver its extremely loud message, then burst into flames … and it’ll be over.
Very often, our response to anxiety is either to a) ignore it, deny it, continue on as if it’s not present, OR b) desperately try to get it to stop. Both approaches are ineffective, and result in the escalation we just discussed.
But, our experience of anxiety, like the Howler, can be over in a few minutes if we:
acknowledge it,
create a pause (often by grounding the body and engaging breath work),
take an objective step back, and
03. And, most importantly, if ignored, it’s much, much worse.
If ignored, the Howler ramps up its response. If opened, it’ll still be unpleasant … but if unopened … as Neville, tells us, it’s “horrible,” exploding into flames with curses and insults flying.
This is the biggest lesson we can take from the Howler in understanding anxiety.
If avoided, we make it much, much worse.
Acknowledge it's there. Acknowledge it’s not pleasant. Acknowledge that you’re uncomfortable, scared, or afraid. And, address the thinking contributing to the fear.
When you don’t, when you do all the things to avoid, control, prevent, predict, make sure, double check, we make it worse.
Although we immediately feel better but putting something uncomfortable off (opening an e-mail, returning a text, scheduling a doctor’s appointment), we only prolong the anxiety. It doesn’t go away. It simply resides, remains, and grows in the back of our mind, making it that much more anxiety-provoking to do the thing the next time.
Instead, refrain from turning away. Instead of avoiding, confront. Instead of trying to control or predict, let go.
I wrote a whole blog post on overcoming this struggle. Check it out for more concrete suggestions for how to address avoidance.
Concluding Thoughts
Do these lessons from the Howler make sense to you when compared to anxiety? This was a fun one to write and create! I hope this post provides a fun way to explore how your experience of anxiety may show up in your life, and in your day-to-day.
Are you enjoying these Real Life Fantasy posts? If so, what other series would you like me to use to illustrate these concepts?!?!
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References
Howler - from Harry Potter Wiki
J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Scholastic Press, October 1999.